Environmental Sustainability Expert Group

Suresh Chitturi

Chair of the Environmental Sustainability Expert Group

Suresh is managing Director of Srinivasa Farms, India, and is the current Chairman of the International Egg Commission.  Adopting a farmer first philosophy, he is passionate about ensuring that the global poultry industry is healthy and sustainable through adoption of latest technologies, good rearing practices and welfare of the livestock.

Arian Groot

Arian was born and raised on a farm in The Netherlands. He studied genetics and economy and obtained a Master of Science (MSc) degree from the Wageningen University. During the past 35 years he has worked in several layer and broiler genetics companies and carried the responsibility for the breeding programs, product management, customer support, marketing, sales, etc. Presently he is working at Hendrix Genetics as the Director Product Management and Business Development and is based in The Netherlands.

Carlos Saviani

Carlos is a food sustainability and marketing executive with comprehensive domestic and international expertise domestic and food production and sourcing, animal protein sustainability, regenerative agriculture, and innovation. He has extensive experience in environmental issues connected to food such as GHG emissions, renewable energy, water stewardship, soil health, and habitat conversion, having previously held the role as VP of WWF’s Food Sustainability Team. Carlos is currently Global Sustainability Lead at DSM Animal Nutrition and Health

Hongwei Xin

Dr. Xin is the dean and director of UT AgResearch at The University of Tennessee. In this role, Xin is responsible for the research programs of some 650 scientists and specialized staff. Prior to joining the UT Institute of Agriculture in April 2019, Dr Xin was assistant dean for research of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University, director of the Egg Industry Center located at ISU, and interim director of the Iowa Nutrient Research Center. Dr Xin’s scholarly programs focus on air quality relative to animal production; animal-environment interactions with regards to animal bioenergetics, behaviour and welfare, production efficiency and sustainability; livestock and poultry production systems engineering; and precision livestock farming.

Ilias Kyriazakis

Ilias is the Professor of Animal Science at the Institute for Global Food Security of Queen’s University, Belfast. He is a veterinarian by training who specialises in the effects of animal management on their performance, the ability to cope with challenges, such as pathogens, and their environmental impact. His recent work in poultry addresses: 1) the effect of nutrition on the ability of birds to cope with pathogens, such as coccidia; 2) the use of alternative and home grown feeds in poultry systems and 3) the development of methods to assess the environmental impact of local and global poultry systems.

John Starkey

John Starkey is President of the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association (USPOULTRY). He is responsible for the administration of all Association programs and activities. He also serves as President of the U.S. Poultry & Egg Harold E. Ford Foundation (USPOULTRY Foundation). The organization represents the poultry and egg industry on both a national and an international level with a focus on research, education, communications, and technical services, with research expanding across a wide scope of environmental projects.

Kent Antonio

Kent Antonio is General manager – Business Development at McLean Farms, Australia. Having grown up within his family business, egg production is in Kent’s blood. He is currently a member of the IEC Executive Board, having previously completed the IEC’s Young Egg Leaders Programme. Throughout his time as a YEL Kent showcased his passion for environmental sustainability, sharing his experience from improvements made on their company farms.

Nathan Pelletier

Nathan Pelletier is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He currently holds the NSERC/Egg Farmers of Canada Industrial Research Chair in Sustainability. Nathan’s research focuses on understanding and managing sustainability risks and opportunities in the egg industry. He contributes to the development of methods for sustainability assessment, which he uses to model the implications of contemporary and alternative technologies and management regimes with respect to sustainability targets and thresholds.  Specific domains of interest include climate change, energy use, reactive nitrogen, food security, social licence, and market access.

Roger Pelissero

Roger Pelissero is a third-generation egg farmer and Chair of Egg Farmers of Canada. He is passionate about sustainability and an advocate for evidence-based research that supports progress and innovation. Roger is involved in several industry-led sustainability initiatives, he is a founding member of the Global Initiative for Sustainable Eggs, and recently co-chaired the Canadian Poultry Sustainability Value Chain Roundtable. He is also a member of the Egg Industry Center Board of Advisors of Iowa State University.